The Department of Defense declared a 60-foot-wide zone of New Mexico land that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border is now part of Arizona’s Fort Huachuca. The change allows the Army’s U.S. Northern Command additional powers to target illegal immigrants on military territory, according to a DOD press release on Monday. U.S. Northern Command is the military’s operational lead to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Through these enhanced authorities, U.S. Northern Command will ensure those who illegally trespass in the New Mexico National Defense Area are handed over to Customs and Border Protection or our other law enforcement partners,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, USNORTHCOM commander, said in a statement. “Joint Task Force-Southern Border will conduct enhanced detection and monitoring, which will include vehicle and foot patrols, rotary wing, and fixed surveillance site operations.”
Now that the shift is being made, Army troops will be allowed to further assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection in patrolling their areas and stop any illegal activity at the border.
Once notified by troops, Border Patrol agents will arrest whomever has been detained by the Army, a CBP spokesperson told a local news outlet.
The latest expansion of the Army’s powers comes as part of Trump’s executive order allowing the military to occupy public land spanning three border states in a bid to advance his administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings.
FEDERAL JUDGE ALLOWS IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT IN RELIGIOUS SPACES
The public land to be handed over “for the use and jurisdiction by the Department of Defense” includes the Roosevelt Reservation, which borders Mexico and covers parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
The land now declared by the DOD to be part of Fort Huachuca was part of the Roosevelt Reservation.
